Jacksonville will host USA Curling National Championships in 2016

Team USA’s skip John Shuster, center, releases the rock to his sweepers John Landsteiner, left, and Jared Zezel during men's curling competition against Norway at the 2014 Winter Olympics, Monday, Feb. 10, 2014, in Sochi, Russia.

Jacksonville will be the site for the 2016 USA Curling National Championships.

The weeklong event, Feb. 6-13 at the Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena, will feature the top 20 men’s and women’s teams competing for the chance to represent the U.S. at the 2016 world championships.

It’s the first time any Florida venue will host a national championship for curling, a Winter Olympic sport in which teams attempt to slide large stones across the ice to a specific target.

The 2014 event was held in Philadelphia and next year’s event will be in Kalamazoo, Mich.

Jacksonville bid for the 2015 and 2016 championships and was awarded the latter.

“This decision was made based upon a very strong bid from the various partners in Jacksonville, as well as many, many meetings between USA Curling and Jacksonville that have convinced all of us that this is a good move for many reasons,” said Rick Patzke, USA Curling chief operating officer.

Jacksonville Mayor Alvin Brown celebrated the decision, saying: “We extend a warm welcome to a cool sport. Jacksonville has become a premier venue and destination for a wide range of major sporting events, and we’re honored to have the 2016 Curling National Championships in our city.’’

I can't say I'll be in the front row either, but if you take the whole country, there are a lot of folks who are into this and it should bring a decent number of people to town, not just the curlers' parents. That's not a bad thing.